Icarus, Tale of the End
by Saienai
Summary: The third war shattered the world, shrinking human population to a tenth of what it was. Those who lived will forever remember the demon that caused such destruction and pray that it never returns. Minato however knows better – the fourth war is coming, nine demons will descend to bring an end to everything, and his son Naruto is the only hope of salvation… Just as planned.


**~ Icarus, Tale of the End ~**

_Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or whatever plot points I decide to import from the Eva world. Book cover is cropped from xUzumaki. Whatever else is probably mine._

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**Prologue ~ Burning World**

_Humans have always thirsted for power – the discovery of chakra, the escalating clan battles during the chaos era, the establishment of the hidden villages and the ever-growing collection of forbidden techniques… skills that encroached upon the territory of gods themselves. At one point, we reached too far, and the gods pushed back._

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In the last days before the end, rumors about what exactly brought us to this point ran wild through the last remains of humanity. Some said that Orochimaru was the one who stepped too far, his search for immortality and nightmare inducing experiments nothing more than the more public of his atrocities. "Who else but him-" they muttered, hope all but gone from their voice, "Who else could possibly have been twisted enough to attempt to push past the boundaries of life and death?"

Others though placed blame squarely with Madara and his no longer secret group of S-class warriors. "He was the first to control the demons, the cursed eye of his controlling creatures that only the gods held any rights to"

"But what about Hashirama?" others exclaimed, "he was the only Senju to basically control all of life, and perhaps he was the one who summoned the kyuubi into the world in the first place – the other eight must have simply followed through the weakened barrier."

They were all wrong of course, I know that now. With Minato's ashes (for I will never call that man my father any longer,) scattered to the four winds, I am the only one left who knows the truth.

Surprisingly enough, it was Tobirama Senju who first planted the seeds of this world's destruction – with his heart shattered from the loss of his wife he reached out past the veil of death and succeeded in pulling her back… unknowingly dragging something else along with her. She convinced him to set her free of her cursed existence within a month, but the damage was done – the barrier cracked. Imperceptive the crack was, but it was there – gradually widening.

The end was already inevitable then and there, but such is the nature of humans that they could not leave it well enough alone.

Madara was next – finding the darkness that had been unknowingly brought to this world he used it to gain power – power that he believed would bring his clan to glory from the remote second it was before. In a way it did – the sharingan changed then, granting a cursed power to those foolish enough to seek it. Madara of course, was.

The details don't matter much, but suffice it to say that he managed to summon a mere shade of the kyuubi from the world's egg and nearly killed the first Hokage before being driven away, the shade returning to where it belonged.

Having been brought up by the Sandaime (Old man, I called him – in my naïve innocence labeling him as my father), I was quite well versed in the atrocities that his apprentice did – the entire world at that point blamed him for the horrifying end of the third war… or at least those that did not mutter about the Uchihas.

The impure world resurrection – a cursed jutsu that became famous in Orochimaru's hands. It shred away at the boundary between worlds until passing in between was almost as easy as knowing where to try. When the kyuubi pushed its way in and lay waste to most of the world, it was Orochimaru's vile experiments that were blamed.

Oh, he wasn't blameless – far from it in fact; but it was the dead demon consuming seal that Minato crafted that turned out to be the last nail in humanities coffin, something that I now know was his intention all along.

After all, one cannot re-create the world the way you want without breaking down the ruins of the old one.

As I sit here on the pedestal in the middle of fire temple where all of this was set in motion, watching as the ten tailed demon of legend consumes the world in black flames; I wonder if there was anything I could have done differently, perhaps if I had known the truth sooner.

I smile at that, though it never reaches my eyes. Knowing what I know, even if I could go back and change it all I wouldn't.

Everything that has a beginning has an end, and every single end leads to a new beginning.

The world was just too corrupted to continue – Though I blame Minato for most of it, I can't forget Tobirama and Madara, Orochimaru and Sasuke… Danzo and Hiruzen (no matter how the last one pains me).

Who knows, perhaps the next world would be better than this one – for a while at least.

I can't really hate any of them though – it was love that set Minato upon this path, and in a twisted kind of way the rest of them as well… The death of Tobirama's wife, the unfortunate end of Madara's brother…

…and I know better than anyone that love can make us commit the worst sins… The burning world around me proof enough of that.

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**A/N**

Was watching the rebuild of evangelion and came up with an interesting idea for a Naruto world. The story will be quite different from Evangelion (only minor plotpoints will be the same), but at the same time it will be completely unlike what the Naruto story is like (case to point, the elemental countries have mostly been wiped out, there is very little conflict between ninjas, etc. Bandits still exist, and plotpoints like the land of waves arc may be covered so it isnt TOO different).

Anyway, not planning on writing too much for a Naruto fandom until I finish some of my other stories, but just wanted to throw this out and see what the reaction is. If this prologue gets a positive reception I might continue, otherwise I will probably take it down or postpone it until real life stops being quite this busy.

- Saienai


End file.
